A Dark Night s Work is an 1863 novella by Elizabeth Gaskell. The word dark was added to the original title by Dickens who felt that the altered title would be more striking. The story centers on Ellinor Wilkins and her father Edward Wilkins, a country lawyer in England. Having lost her mother and sister at a very young age, Ellinor develops an intense bond with her father. Her bond is so strong that Ellinor is also blind to her father s faults. As Ellinor grows into adulthood, she is engaged to a young man of a noble family. Just at that time, tragedy strikes. Mr. Wilkins, in a fit of drunken rage, commits murder. Desperate to avoid the disgrace, Ellinor, her father and a family servant hide the body. After that, the story is chiefly concerned with the effects of a guilty conscious. Each person concerned deals with the guilt in devastating ways and the effects are far-reaching into the future. The work focuses on the realistic analysis of character and emotion, rather than melodrama.